Community-friendly Sabbath Schools

Many community members would be willing to attend Sabbath School if they

were not made to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed. Community-friendly
Sabbath Schools should be conducted in such a manner as to draw, not repel,
honest seekers for truth. There are a number of things the Sabbath School can do
to become guest friendly.
Hospitality
People who simply drop in, attend with a friend, or
return to Sabbath School after a long absence, usually
dont want to be ignored, but neither do they want to
be smothered with attention or singled out.
Guests should be greeted with a friendly smile and
perhaps a question like, Are you familiar with our
program and/or facility? This is not too invasive yet
may help to set the guest at ease. A pre-arranged
hospitality host could be introduced to the guest. This
member may engage in light conversation by
introducing themselves and telling a bit about their
family, work, how long they have lived in the city,
and so forth.
The hospitality host may then answer questions and
show guests to appropriate rooms for childrens
classes and give the locations of restrooms. They may
invite the guest to their own adult Sabbath School
class if appropriate. The host should select a class that
is community friendly. The host family may sit near
guests during church, accompany them to fellowship
meal, and/or invite them to their home for Sabbath
dinner.

Community-friendly Class
The best seating arrangement for a communityfriendly class is most often a circle. The class
facilitator should be present early so guests are not
left sitting alone, waiting for class to begin. Guests
feel most comfortable in a class that is warm, friendly
and social, yet not invasive or coercive.
Simple introductions around the circle may be
followed by an ice-breaker question that is easy for all
to answer and allows members to become more at
ease. For example, the facilitator might ask members
to share a bit about their first memories of school.
When asking class members to read, share, pray, or
answer questions around the circle, the facilitator
should make it easy for guests either to participate or
to remain silent. A simple statement like, If anyone
does not feel comfortable participating, that is
perfectly fine. Just look to your right. We will
understand and continue around the circle.

It may be even better not to go around the circle.

For example, praying spontaneously in sentences
allows all who wish to pray to participate and others
to pray silently.
Classes that are friendly to guests must be aware
that visitors may have very little knowledge of where
to find Scripture texts or Bible stories in general. It
would be well to have extra Bible study guides and
Bibles on hand to offer to them.
Denominational jargon such as the truth, the
Spirit of Prophecy, Ellen White, the conference,
the ABC will seem like a foreign language to
guests. Unless they have a background in Bible
knowledge and experience, they will most often
understand only the language of news media,
television, the working world, or the street.
Concepts like justification, sanctification, new
birth, atonement, sanctuary, and many others must be
explained with words that are meaningful to them.
Many seekers for truth would consider themselves
spiritual people. They will most likely have been
exposed to a great variety of spiritual teaching.
Facilitators should seek to bridge the gap between
cultural religion and the concepts of Scripture. There
are ethics common to most spiritual faiths and
philosophies. Some of these would be: (1)
benevolence to all; (2) universal value of people; (3)
love, kindness, understanding, sympathy; (4)
humanitarian causes (5) acceptance of all
regardless of race, color or attire.
Modern society is influenced not so
much by scriptural content as by people
who manifest a dynamic experience of
peace, love, joy, longsuffering, goodness
meekness, temperance, faith. Visitors will
generally not be opposed to scriptural
content if it is a means to helping them
manifest this kind of life. For this reason the class
discussion should focus on a life-related study of
Scripture.
The class facilitator should avoid putting people on
the spot by asking them by name to respond. Guests
may be frightened off by this, even if the facilitator

knows he or she will not offend a regular member in

so doing. Facilitators should not come across as harsh
authoritarians or religious bigots. They should not
compromise truth, but should teach with kindness,
sympathy, understanding and benevolence.
It would be well to have a ground rule for
discussion and to state it often as new guests arrive.
One example would be for the facilitator to say: We
like to have open discussion and want everyone to
feel free to participate. We welcome honest questions,
no matter how simple you feel they might be. We
simply ask that we allow the Bible to provide the final
answers. If a guest might express an opinion that is
contrary to sound doctrine, the facilitator may call
attention to a qualifying text and while contemplating
the text together, may give a testimony of their
understanding without argument or debate. The
facilitator should help regular members to refrain
from argument, debate, or insensitive comments that
might offend visitors.

Drawing Interested Guests

Research reveals that people who do not attend
church often would be interested in programs that
might help with improved people relationships, better
family life, addiction recovery, or life management
skills. It would be well for the Sabbath School council
to consider conducting outreach programs, classes, or
branch Sabbath Schools that would focus on these or
other topics of interest to the community.
Some have advertised and conducted a Saturday
Morning Bible Prophecy Class open to the
community with positive results.
Summary
Sabbath Schools that manifest a community
friendly presence will show an understanding and
sensitivity to what is important to guests. Leaders, as
well as regular members, will be sensitive to the
mindset of people; to what attracts and what repels.
They will strive to use a common language and be
ready to apply the Bible to daily living.

Copyright 2009

General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists